Awesome

July 18th, 2006

Mexico City was amazing, and we did it all …

# Floated on gondolas in Xochimilco at ten a.m. and had cervezas while musicians played for us.

# Checked out the gigantic pyramids to the sun and moon at Teotihuacan. GI. GAN. TIC.

# Ate lunch at a restaurant in a cave.

# Saw the shrine to the Virgin de Guadalupe … the second most important Catholic shrine in the world. It was a spectacle. Highlights included the plaza outside the church, where people who had made the pilgrimmage from afar slept and threw their garbage around (I tripped over a bag of bread that was still intact but soaking wet, for example), and the moving walkway under the altar, which conveyed us beneath a cut away section of the floor, so that we could look up and see (and photograph) the cape from the miracle of Juan Diego.

# Attended the professional Ballet Folklorico, and I am not exaggerating when I say, it was the most entertained I have ever been for two hours. (We got to get a bit dressed up, too, which was exciting after two weeks of tourist clothes and fanny packs.)

# Learned the many uses for the maguey cactus, from making lacey cloth out of cactus fiber, to mixing up pulque for increased performance with tu amor.

# Checked out the zocalo, or city center, where we toured the palacio and saw many Diego Rivera murals … cruised through the musuem in which the ruins of the original Aztec temple, over which the conquistadors built their city, may be seen.

# Went to the Frida Kahlo Museum, which is in the house she was born in, grew up in, moved to later in life, and died in (the one from the movie if you have seen it). Im not sure why it was so inspiring to be there and see some of her work but it really was.

# We also happened to be there on the day of a demonstration for Obrador, the candidate who lost the recent presidential election by a slim margin … he is calling for a recount. Our hotel was two blocks from here.

Mexico City photos are up as well (I recommend clicking on View Slideshow).

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